What began as one rancher’s effort to help meet his local food bank’s 300% increase in demand last spring has progressed to the development of the first federally inspected non-profit purchased and run meat processing facility in the country.
When stay-at-home orders were put in place in Montana last March, many in rancher Matt Pierson’s community of Livingston lost their jobs or were furloughed or laid off – leaving them struggling to feed their families. When Pierson learned of the skyrocketing demand at the local food bank, the fifth-generation rancher did what farmers and ranchers live to do: He figured out a way to feed people.